18 Feb, 2013 08:17 AM
OPINION: WE NOW know why the Prime Minister has instigated the longest election campaign in political history. It will stave off the need for any by-elections, thus preserving the Gillard government for its full term.
Yet even in a campaign lasting eight months, the most important issue may still be related to the margins. The issue that dwarfs all others is the fundamental soundness of the eastern food basin, where 40 per cent of Australia's food is grown. That food basin is no longer fundamentally sound. It is stressed, though still sound, but not fundamentally sound. It is far less self-sustaining than it was when Europeans arrived and thought they could do better than a million years of evolution. The buggering process has been under way for 200 years and is ongoing. More water and soil is being depleted than is being replenished - and now an entirely new threat has emerged. Consider this remarkable statistic: according to the maps published by the Queensland Murray-Darling Basin Authority, the area covered by mining leases in Queensland's Murray-Darling catchment area is now 40 per cent. Think about that. Mining is water intensive. It consumes as much water as agriculture. It is going to be impossible for extensive new mining operations in Queensland not to impinge on the production of food downstream. The area was stressed even before the coal and gas boom, so much so that the latest report of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation describes the Murray-Darling Basin as ''at risk''. The organisation's report says a number of the basin's river systems ''face the risk of progressive breakdown of their productive capacity under a combination of excessive demographic pressure and unsustainable agricultural use and practices''. The CSIRO is also concerned and has been for some time. It issued a warning in 2006 that Australia's water resources were ''precariously balanced''. This was before the NSW and Queensland mining booms were in full swing.
Last week, the federal Minister for the Environment, Tony Burke, granted approval to expand coal seam gas projects in NSW that represent a potential 500 per cent increase in the state's coal seam gas production. Burke also granted conditional approval for the Maules Creek coalmine in north-western NSW, the site of extensive community opposition. He also granted conditional approval for expansion of the nearby Boggabri coal mine. NSW farmers also face a real threat from Queensland. If all or most of the proposed Queensland mines go into production, it would have a significant effect on the food-growing capacity downstream. Last month, Cubbie Station, the vast cotton-producing and water-diverting farm operation in the head of the Murray-Darling catchment area in southern Queensland, was sold to a Chinese-led consortium for $240 million. This was a golden opportunity missed. According to the CSIRO, the cotton industry uses about 1600 litres of water to generate $1 of output. During a 12-year drought, in 2009, Cubbie went into voluntary administration with a debt of $320 million. That was the time for government intervention to buy the operation, take it out of production and dismantle its extensive system of reservoirs, which stretch for 28 kilometres. It is a system made massively inefficient by evaporation. Cubbie has been the source of intense and sustained criticism by farmers downstream in NSW who have accused the operation of destroying river flows, an accusation always denied. Buying Cubbie Station to shut it down is not a new idea and it is not my idea.
How, you may ask, does the eastern mining boom fit with the CSIRO assessment in 2006 (Echohydrology: Vegetation Function, Water and Resource Management) that ''the Australian continental water budget is precariously balanced - Too many aquifers are being over-extracted - Groundwater use across Australia doubled between 1983 and 1996 - In most states, groundwater extraction exceeds licensed allocations - the beef cattle industry uses 800 litres of water to generate $1 of product''? All this was written before much of the massive allocation of mining leases for coal seam gas, coal, oil and minerals extraction. I recently reminded Bob Carr of his Cubbie project when he launched a new book by Michael Mobbs, the owner of a famous sustainable house in Chippendale. The book, Sustainable Food, addresses what people should do to buttress themselves against any future food price shock. He recommends a return to backyard vegetable gardens and communal street gardens like the ones he has been successfully operating in his home and along his street, Myrtle Street, Chippendale. ''Why is it important to farm in the city?'' he asks. ''Because soon we may have no choice.'' That may seem unduly bleak, but Australia is going to have to do something about expanding its food production capacity, because too much reliance has been put on a system under too much stress. This gives the Coalition's idea of creating a new food bowl in northern Australia a new perspective, because at the rate NSW and Queensland are going, more food will have to be imported from overseas as domestic supplies become both more scarce and more expensive. If all this does not become an election issue, we will reap what we deserve.
http://www.theland.com.au/news/nationalrural/general/opinion/food-bowl-at-risk/2647162.aspx?storypage=3
Yet even in a campaign lasting eight months, the most important issue may still be related to the margins. The issue that dwarfs all others is the fundamental soundness of the eastern food basin, where 40 per cent of Australia's food is grown. That food basin is no longer fundamentally sound. It is stressed, though still sound, but not fundamentally sound. It is far less self-sustaining than it was when Europeans arrived and thought they could do better than a million years of evolution. The buggering process has been under way for 200 years and is ongoing. More water and soil is being depleted than is being replenished - and now an entirely new threat has emerged. Consider this remarkable statistic: according to the maps published by the Queensland Murray-Darling Basin Authority, the area covered by mining leases in Queensland's Murray-Darling catchment area is now 40 per cent. Think about that. Mining is water intensive. It consumes as much water as agriculture. It is going to be impossible for extensive new mining operations in Queensland not to impinge on the production of food downstream. The area was stressed even before the coal and gas boom, so much so that the latest report of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation describes the Murray-Darling Basin as ''at risk''. The organisation's report says a number of the basin's river systems ''face the risk of progressive breakdown of their productive capacity under a combination of excessive demographic pressure and unsustainable agricultural use and practices''. The CSIRO is also concerned and has been for some time. It issued a warning in 2006 that Australia's water resources were ''precariously balanced''. This was before the NSW and Queensland mining booms were in full swing.
Last week, the federal Minister for the Environment, Tony Burke, granted approval to expand coal seam gas projects in NSW that represent a potential 500 per cent increase in the state's coal seam gas production. Burke also granted conditional approval for the Maules Creek coalmine in north-western NSW, the site of extensive community opposition. He also granted conditional approval for expansion of the nearby Boggabri coal mine. NSW farmers also face a real threat from Queensland. If all or most of the proposed Queensland mines go into production, it would have a significant effect on the food-growing capacity downstream. Last month, Cubbie Station, the vast cotton-producing and water-diverting farm operation in the head of the Murray-Darling catchment area in southern Queensland, was sold to a Chinese-led consortium for $240 million. This was a golden opportunity missed. According to the CSIRO, the cotton industry uses about 1600 litres of water to generate $1 of output. During a 12-year drought, in 2009, Cubbie went into voluntary administration with a debt of $320 million. That was the time for government intervention to buy the operation, take it out of production and dismantle its extensive system of reservoirs, which stretch for 28 kilometres. It is a system made massively inefficient by evaporation. Cubbie has been the source of intense and sustained criticism by farmers downstream in NSW who have accused the operation of destroying river flows, an accusation always denied. Buying Cubbie Station to shut it down is not a new idea and it is not my idea.
How, you may ask, does the eastern mining boom fit with the CSIRO assessment in 2006 (Echohydrology: Vegetation Function, Water and Resource Management) that ''the Australian continental water budget is precariously balanced - Too many aquifers are being over-extracted - Groundwater use across Australia doubled between 1983 and 1996 - In most states, groundwater extraction exceeds licensed allocations - the beef cattle industry uses 800 litres of water to generate $1 of product''? All this was written before much of the massive allocation of mining leases for coal seam gas, coal, oil and minerals extraction. I recently reminded Bob Carr of his Cubbie project when he launched a new book by Michael Mobbs, the owner of a famous sustainable house in Chippendale. The book, Sustainable Food, addresses what people should do to buttress themselves against any future food price shock. He recommends a return to backyard vegetable gardens and communal street gardens like the ones he has been successfully operating in his home and along his street, Myrtle Street, Chippendale. ''Why is it important to farm in the city?'' he asks. ''Because soon we may have no choice.'' That may seem unduly bleak, but Australia is going to have to do something about expanding its food production capacity, because too much reliance has been put on a system under too much stress. This gives the Coalition's idea of creating a new food bowl in northern Australia a new perspective, because at the rate NSW and Queensland are going, more food will have to be imported from overseas as domestic supplies become both more scarce and more expensive. If all this does not become an election issue, we will reap what we deserve.
http://www.theland.com.au/news/nationalrural/general/opinion/food-bowl-at-risk/2647162.aspx?storypage=3
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